“My dear, where did you get it? Twenty-five dollars! Jo, I hope you haven’t done anything rash?”

“No, it’s mine honestly. I didn’t beg, borrow, or steal it. I earned it, and I don’t think you’ll blame me, for I only sold what was my own.”

As she spoke, Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short.

“Your hair! Your beautiful hair!” “Oh, Jo, how could you? Your one beauty.” “My dear girl, there was no need of this.” “She doesn’t look like my Jo any more, but I love her dearly for it!”

~Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

While I’m certainly not going to accuse anyone of cutting off their one beauty, I know that having a shorter, modern hairstyle is a challenge for many female reenactors (including myself). There were occasional trends for short hairstyles on women in various historic time periods and other reasons that women might have their hair cut short, but in general women had much longer and more elaborately styled hair than is common today. So, what’s a modern girl to do? Of course, you could spend many years growing your hair out, but even with quite long hair it can still be difficult to achieve the right look. How did women achieve impressive hairstyles like this?

Well, some women had other women around to help style their hair – mothers, sisters, or even lady’s maids, but the real answer is that they were great big fakers. Throughout history, women have used all manner of false hair to supplement their own hair and achieve fashionable styles. What do you think Jo’s shorn hair was used for, anyway?

So, in the noble tradition of our ancestresses, we’re going to fake it until we make it.

The following is a style that I’ve devised to turn my modern, shoulder-length, layered hairstyle into something appropriate for 1860s reenacting. This style works best on hair between chin and shoulder length that can mostly be pulled back into a low ponytail. It was inspired by originals like these.

Before we get started, a few general rules about ladies’ hairstyles in the 1860s.

Fashion dictated that ladies’ hair should be parted in the center. Men parted their hair on the side.

The desired shape was low and round to enhance the roundness of the face. There should be very little height on top of the head and lots of fullness around the sides of the face and nape of the neck.

Hair should be very smooth. To the modern eye this often looks greasy both because hair was washed less frequently than it usually is now and because various types of oils and grease were used as styling aids. Smooth and slicked down was considered more attractive than tousled and flyaway.

Ladies always covered their hair when leaving the house. Even the best hairstyle is no excuse to run around outside without an appropriate hat or bonnet.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules so do your own research to make sure that whatever hairstyle you choose is appropriate to the time period, location, activity, and individual that you are portraying.

Now, on to the tutorial!

Supplies:

Dirty hair. Yes, really. I have the best luck with this hairstyle if I haven’t washed my hair in two or three days.

A brush

A comb

Some sort of styling aid. You can use hairspray, gel, or mousse in a pinch, but you’ll get a more historically accurate look with something greasier like pomade. A multitude of modern pomades and hair waxes are available. If you’re feeling particularly historically accurate you can make your own pomade from a period recipe. You may even have something on hand that will work. I use a body butter that I happen to have that’s mostly shea butter.

A bun that matches your hair color. Kanekalon is a fairly good quality synthetic hair at a really reasonable price. I bought this switch, braided it, coiled it and sewed it in place so that it would hold its shape, and covered it with a fine hair net to keep it smooth (although you can see in the picture it’s starting to frizz a bit). For tips on working with Kanekalon, check out this post on the Sewing Academy.

Two rats or chignon forms. My rats are two of these hairpieces which I happened to have on hand, wrapped in fine hairnets. You can purchase mesh chignon forms or you can do what women did historically – save the hair that collects on your brush and bundle that into a rat when you have enough. If you don’t have a hair receiver for collecting your shed hair, a small, empty tissue box works well.

Two flip clips

A rubber band

Bobby pins. I use 10 large pins. You may need additional small pins to secure flyaway hair if your hair is shorter or has more layers.

A hairnet if desired. Dissertations could be (and have been) written on 1860s hair nets. Here’s the brief summary of the relevant facts for day wear hair nets – ribbon hair nets for evening wear are another story. They were called hair nets, not snoods. They were worn over styled hair, not loose hair. They were quite fine and in a color that matched the hair. They were generally made of silk and netted. Mine is technically incorrect because it’s crocheted cotton. I didn’t know better when I made it, but it’s not too bad. You can netyour own if you want to be really accurate or you can buy one that’s not too bad.

1. Part your hair down the center from your hairline to the crown of your head.

2. Make a second part across the crown of your head from ear to ear. Use clips or rubber bands to hold the front two sections of hair out of the way. Pull the back section of hair smoothly into a low ponytail at the nape of your neck.

You should now have a nice T-shaped part.

3. Using large bobby pins, secure a rat slightly behind and above each ear.

4. Pull one front section of hair back over the rat making sure it’s very smooth. Secure behind the rat with a flip clip. Repeat on the other side.

5. Place the bun low on the back of your head at the nape of your neck. It should cover the small ponytail and both flip clips. Secure with large bobby pins.

6. Use your styling aid to smooth your hair and tame flyaways, paying special attention to smoothing the front sections on either side of the center part. If using pomade, remember that a little goes a long way. I put a small dab of body butter on my hands and rub it in like lotion and then rub my hands over my hair to smooth it down.

7. If desired (or needed for a little more coverage and control of short layers), add a hairnet.

Looking for something fun, educational, entertaining, and delicious to do in the new year? Have you ever wanted to step back in time and taste history? This is your chance. The Littleton Museum will be hosting Mastering the Art of Frontier Cooking with Miss Beecher early next year.

Enjoy the 1860s farm in a unique way! Prepare a meal using “receipts” from cookbooks published in the 1800s. With assistance from the interpreters, you will churn, roast, bake, and boil a delicious feast. Once the food is prepared, you will dine by lamplight in the cozy cabin.

Summer has come and gone and with it another Renaissance Festival season.

CodeMonkey continued his run as the court musician, now with a new and improved doublet. Also a really snazzy hat made by yours truly. One of these days I’ll get around to writing a FO Friday post about our hats.

The booth that I work for changed ownership at the end of last season and now belongs to a local potter. Since I am apparently a strange sort of indentured servant who’s included with the building, I was still there with my yarn.

The rest of the shop was full of absolutely gorgeous handmade pottery.

SweetP was still miraculously able to wear his gowns and overgowns from last year, but over a pair of hose as a shirt and tunic this year. He was also sporting a brand new made by mommy hat. He tried his hand as an apprentice spinner . . .

. . . and an apprentice potter . . .

. . . but mostly he liked seeing the sights from the best seat in the house.

And now SweetP and I are off on an adventure to the grandparents’ house for a couple of weeks. Maybe I’ll write another blog post again sometime in the next three months 🙂

Despite evidence to the contrary above, I’ve never owned a proper bonnet. Those are day caps up there. In the 1860s, the term bonnet referred to two different types of headwear. Fashion bonnets (like the spoon bonnet below) were, as the name suggests, fashionable, but not very practical. More well to do ladies might wear bonnets like this every day, but not farm women.

For farm women (and any other women who needed sun protection without having to carry a parasol), the sunbonnet was the headwear of choice. Sunbonnets come in three main varieties – slatted, corded, and quilted. The description refers to how the brim of the bonnet is stiffened. Slatted sunbonnets like this one have brims that are stiffened with slats of something like cardboard or paperboard inserted into pockets in the brim.

The effect is similar to wearing a mailbox on your head – great sun protection, no peripheral vision. Corded bonnets like this one have brims stiffened with rows of cording sewn into them.

The cords themselves add some stiffness and the corded brims can be starched to give them a little more oomph. Quilted bonnets like this one have a thin layer of batting between the two layers of brim fabric. The brim is then quilted to hold the layers together and provide extra stiffening.

I’ve been wanting a sunbonnet to wear at the museum, but kept procrastinating on actually making one because I didn’t have a pattern. I came across an excellent tutorial on Romantic History and yet kept procrastinating. Finally, with this year’s Sheep to Shawl event breathing down my neck, I decided that I needed to make not only a bonnet for me, but also a bonnet for SweetP.

I started with SweetP’s bonnet. Using two fat quarters of quilting cotton, some polyester quilt interfacing (I was in a rush and using what I could get my hands on, but next time I would use cotton batting), and an excellent tutorial by Sarah at Romantic History (which sadly appears to be no longer available) I whipped up a wee sunbonnet surprisingly quickly.

After I had one bonnet under my belt, it seemed less daunting to make an adult sized one. I followed Sarah’s tutorial and used a yard of cotton that came from MommaCodeMonkey’s stash and that I had intended to turn into curtains for our guest room (I think there’s still enough left for curtains whenever I get around to them). Again, I cheated with the polyester quilt interfacing and also some premade white piping and bias tape.

I’ve worn the bonnet quite a few times since Sheep to Shawl and I really like it. It doesn’t go flying off my head at the slightest breeze like my old (and historically inaccurate) straw hat did. My history hair fits under it which was not the case with the straw hat. It provides really serious sun protection – I’ve done a full afternoon of gardening in it with no sunscreen for backup and my complexion was none the worse for wear. The quilted brim can be turned back for better peripheral vision or pulled forward for more shade and the bonnet is very light and and breathable.

I know April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but if the showers happen to be snow showers like we’ve been getting lately then it’s much more useful if they bring brightly colored wool.

I’ve been dyeing up a storm.

There’s fluffy roving in every flavor:

Looks like cotton candy, but it’s better for you – fewer calories, more fiber!

There’s a whole spectrum of sock yarn:

And there’s a rainbow of silks for good measure:

If you’d like to see firsthand how to get these colors and more using all natural dyes (as well as all of the other aspects of fiber processing), come to the Littleton Museum’s Sheep to Shawl event this Saturday. I’ll be dyeing in the summer kitchen. Stop by and say hello!